OrEd-T-21.9-The Inner Shift
(75. Do I desire a world I rule instead of one which rules me?
Do I desire a world where I am powerful instead of helpless?
Do I desire a world in which I have no enemies and cannot sin?
And do I want to see what I denied, because it is the truth?)
85. Are thoughts then dangerous? To bodies, yes! The thoughts that seem to kill are those that teach the thinker he can be killed. And so he dies because of what he learned. He goes from life to death, the final proof he valued the inconstant more than constancy. Surely he thought he wanted happiness. Yet he did not desire it because it was the truth, and therefore must be constant.
86. The constancy of joy is a condition quite alien to my understanding. Yet if I could even imagine what it must be, I would desire it, although I do not understand it.
87. The constancy of happiness has no exceptions, no change of any kind. It is unshakable as is the love of God for His creation. As sure in its vision as its Creator is in what He knows, happiness looks on everything and sees everything is the same. It does not see the ephemeral, for it desires that everything be like itself, and so sees it. Nothing has the power to confound its constancy, because its own desire cannot be shaken. It comes as surely to those who see the final question is necessary to the rest, as peace must come to those who choose to heal and not to judge.
88. Reason tells me that I cannot inconstantly ask for happiness. I receive what I desire, and happiness, being constant, need only be asked for once to have it always. And if I do not always have happiness, I did not ask for it. Everyone asks for his desire if he believes it will be given him. He may be wrong in where, what, and of what he asks. Yet, desire is a request, made by one whom God Himself will always answer. Yet, while he remains uncertain, he does not desire happiness, and God cannot give him happiness unless it is received. God's giving must be complete, and I have already received all that I really want.
89. We, who complete God's Will, are His happiness, and our will is as powerful as His. Our power is not lost in our illusions. We must think carefully why we have not decided how we would answer the final question. Our answers to the other questions have helped us to a be partly sane. And yet, it is the final question that asks if we are really willing to be wholly sane.
90. The holy instant is God's appeal to recognize what is given to us. Here is the great appeal to reason, the awareness of what is always there to be seen, the happiness that could always be ours. Here is the constant peace we could experience forever. Here, what denial has denied, is revealed to us. For here, the final question is already answered, and what we ask for given. Here, the future is now, for time is powerless because of our desire for what will never change. We have asked that nothing stand between the holiness of our relationship and our awareness of its holiness.
